


Befriending Her

by iMachine



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016), The Passage (TV 2019)
Genre: Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Friendship, Gen, Psychic Abilities, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2020-05-14 22:49:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19282798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iMachine/pseuds/iMachine
Summary: After the events of ST 2 and before ST 3: Amy and Eleven are two young girls, with incredible minds, that mysteriously meet one another in an unconventional way. Despite living in different parts of the country, they realize they aren't too far apart. However, their inquisitiveness about one another actually proves to be more dangerous than expected.





	1. I

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry if there are a lot of typos. This is just a short crossover I've been wanting to quickly throw out there.

Amy found herself in this obscure and dark place yet again. Unlike last time, she was sure to make it known that she was well aware of it. She didn’t want to bother pretending like the last time because she knew she was being watched. She had no idea where it was and there was certainly an eerie, unearthly feel about it. It was a cold, dark room with black floors covered with a thin layer of water that didn’t seem to have the ability to dampen. The room seemed to have no walls and only one source of light—a young girl who stood in the center. She was a young girl with fair skin, around the age of twelve or thirteen, with curly short hair that fell around her ears. And although she didn’t say, Amy felt that the stranger had a mutual feeling about her in regards to being unlike any ordinary girl. It was probably the reason why she revisited. Amy wore a classic wool sweater with denim jeans and had a pair of messy buns on top of her head. The last time Amy was visited by this girl, was the first time—and Amy was frustrated. She was crying.

“What’d you say your name was again?”

“Eleven,” the strange girl responded. She slowly circled Amy, carefully examining her. The look on her face was of inquisition, almost at a loss for words that someone had the ability to wander freely in the void despite it being under her control, “How are you doing that?” she questioned next.

Amy looked around momentarily, standing still but sure to keep track of her interrogator’s every move.

“Doing what?”

“T-talking to me? In here? Only, I can see people,” she then gestured to herself by putting her hand on her chest, “But they _can’t_ see me.”

“...I don’t know,” Amy answered with a shrug, sounding just as discouraged, “You’re the one who brought me here.”

Eleven stopped in her tracks. Allowing the shallow ripples underneath her retro white sneakers to stop trailing behing her,

“What’s your name?”

“Amy.”

“Are you like me?” Eleven asked.

Amy bit her bottom lip and proceeded to cross her arms. She knew the angle that Eleven was getting at but was too afraid to answer. She wasn’t entirely sure what might’ve Eleven meant. She couldn’t be a viral? Or Amy would’ve sensed it. She was sensing something entirely different. Maybe she was a different type of viral? Because this was certainly something she had never seen from a viral before. However, to keep herself veiled, she played naive for a little while longer,

“Like you, how?”

“I can move things,” she simply put, getting a pegged look from Amy. Being so unfamiliar with words, she specified as best as she could, “...with my mind. I can find people with my mind. I-I found you by accident. I was looking for someone else.”

Amy looked down at the ground, seeing a reflection of herself in the water. She was essentially being entrusted by a young girl who also had psychic powers. And although she was taught to keep everything about her a secret, meeting another girl like her spoke louder than her previous warnings,

“I can do things with my mind too…” Amy confessed.

“Like what?”

“I can read people’s minds. Hear their thoughts,” she saw Eleven’s face somewhat light up. After being frozen in place, she took a step forward. Amy continued, wanting to specify as well, “I have visions of the future and the past. And I can do something like...this,” she looked around, referencing Eleven’s void, “Except it’s not dark or scary. It can be any place I’m familar with.”

“Familiar?” Eleven questioned.

From the very beginning, Amy understood that Eleven’s vocabulary was limited, which really made her wonder if she was a viral after all. There was clearly some type of isolation that went on in her life that allowed to not be so good at finding the right words to socialize. Amy continued,

“I can’t explain it.”

“Can I see?”

Considering that she didn’t know this girl, Amy let out a nervous breath. She was reluctant. The last two people she allowed into her mind were people she never wanted to come in touch with ever again. As a matter of fact, she hadn’t been in own mind in such a long time because of the memories certain places brought. Namingly, her “home” was a place she could stay in for hours at a time and live just like she would if she were at her physical home. Of course, there were limits to these things. She could acquire anything knowledgeable—as most psychics could with their mind.

“Maybe another time,” she said, concealing her hesitance.

Eleven opened her mouth, however, no sound was coming out of it as if she was behind a soundproof glass wall. In the blink of an eye, Eleven disappeared, leaving the entire room dark. Before she even got the chance to panic, Amy found herself back in her bedroom. Her irises dimly glowed a golden-yellow color while she experienced the entire process. And now that she was out of this state, her eyes returned to their natural brown color. Looking around, she realized she was sitting in the same position that Eleven found her in as if she never physically left or moved a muscle. She looked over at the clock hanging over the opened doorway of her bedroom, seeing that the exact same amount of time she spent in Eleven’s world was definitely aligned with real-time as well.

It wasn’t surprising seeing that she usually always became dormant when using her own psychic powers, but this was an experience that was so different for her. It left her stunned. That was until Brad Wolgast checked in on her. Due to his former profession, she called him “agent” and how they originally met was quite questionable. Basically, everything that she was today had everything to do with him and she was unsure she could ever not hold some type of resentment towards him for it. Either way, he was making up for it by taking her under his wing and mentoring him. He was teaching her how to survive, how to fight, and how to become better at using her powers.

Like every other night, Amy was asked to come to eat dinner with Brad and his wife, Lila. Since her journey had its moments at making her seem distant, she was pretty exceptional at using that to withhold secrets—and Eleven was being added to that list.

* * *

 

About two weeks later and Eleven had yet to reach out to Amy. From their last encounter, Amy unintentionally made it clear that what Eleven was doing was quite intrusive. Eleven didn’t want anyone to feel violated, plus, she had her own friends to socialize with. But the last time she met a girl who was just like her, didn’t have much of a good outcome—her codename was Eight but she went by the name Kali. And although being out with Kali definitely had some teachable moments, it was something Eleven didn’t want to experience again. Could Amy be one of them? An experiment used in a government like in Hawkin’s Indiana? A facility used to spy on the Russians? Maybe she was being used in a different part of the world. Eleven wanted to know more but she didn’t want to pry or seem nosey. It had been on her mind so much recently that even her friends were beginning to take notice, especially her boyfriend Mike. To them, she had been so distracted recently. She usually told them all of her secrets but she had yet to figure out what was going on herself. Maybe this was something else that could be connected to her just like how everything else had been.

While at the Palace Arcade with her friends, Eleven had on a pair of neon, glow in the dark glasses and ate out of a box of popcorn. She enjoyed herself, laughing hysterically as her friend Dustin, went all out on the pinball machine. She was surrounded by a group of them. Dustin was an energetic young boy with curly short hair that draped around his ears, similarly to Eleven’s. There was Will, a thin boy with ginger hair and a bowl cut who had gone through a number of ordeals ever since Eleven stepped into town. There was Lucas, possibly the most mentally stable and mature of them all. Then there was Maxine, who went by “Max”, a ginger girl with bright red hair, freckles, and bright blue eyes. Lastly, there was Mike, the young boy who welcomed Eleven after she ran away from the facility that weaponized her. He was her newly accomplished boyfriend, but he’d always be her hero first and foremost.

While on the pinball machine, Dustin did something she had yet to understand was victorious. However, it caused everyone else around her to cheer and be filled with elation. That alone, caused a smile to tug at the corner of Eleven’s mouth. Reaching into her bucket for more popcorn, she grabbed a remaining handful, but before she could remove her hand from the bucket, she suddenly found herself in a random household as thought she had been teleported there.

She froze. Stunned, seeing that this has happened to her many times before in the past, but the time she randomly showed up in a whole different dimension wasn’t like this: Everything about this place felt almost perfect, a feeling she had never experienced but could tell that it was something she longed for. Sunlight beamed in through the blinds. The house was the perfect temperature and there was a wonderful aroma of food cooking on the stove. The overall color of her atmosphere seemed to become a lot more vibrant, having warm yellowish hues throughout as if she were wearing them as colored lenses. But as comfortable as she felt, she was still bothered by the fact that she was in a place she had never been with no understanding of how she was transported there in the first place. Was this her own doing? Did this have anything to do with the Upside Down? She looked around, unaware of Amy emerging from one of the rooms in the back,

“H-hey,” Amy nervously greeted.

“Hi,” Eleven smiled after facing her, despite being a little spooked. She looked around once again, “This is your mind?”

“Yeah,” Amy looked around, “And no,” Eleven gazed on, confused. To demonstrate more of her psychic powers, within a flash, the scenery swapped. They were in the same location but outside of her apartment near the outdoor public pool. The smile grew wider on Eleven’s face. It was a smile with wonder, and Amy was more than happy to fulfill it, “I can take people anywhere I’ve been. Like...I can take people to how it looks in the present or I can recreate it with how I remembered it in the past and interact with anything there.”

“Int-Interact?” Eleven repeated with curiousness.

Amy thought of the best example to give her and thought back to the time when she lost one of her all-time favorite books given to her as a gift from her mother: _A Wrinkle in Time_. She feared that she would never see her book again. It broke her heart considering that it was the only thing to remember her mother by. However, she was taught by another viral that although she could never physically reclaim it, she could psychically return to where she last left it and bring it with her to any location as she wished—as long as it was in her mind. She was unsure how she did it, but she managed to finish the entire book at this very poolside because of this thing she had a hard time calling a gift. She even learned how to swim in this pool without having to achieve it in the physical world.

Eleven was so impressed by those claims alone, she found it a little hard to believe—and if not hard to believe; unfair.

“What about you? What else can you do?” Amy asked her.

Eleven didn’t want to seem underwhelming after what she just learned about Amy. Anyone would probably be. So she went for her first magic trick that seemed to wow anyone who found out. She looked over at the dirty pool and noticed a small beach ball. Amy studied both her and the ball closely as Eleven lifted her right arm and focused immensely on the inflated object. Her stares were so intense, she looked like she could’ve popped a vein eventually trembling and grunting with focus. Amy calmly grabbed her hand and placed it down back to Eleven’s side,

“Whatever you’re trying to do, I don’t think it works here…” Amy smiled.

Eleven brought her pale fingers up to her nose, not feeling any traces blood. Recalling the look on Eleven’s face, Amy’s smile transformed into a soft chuckle, to which Eleven eventually smiled at as well,

“My mind. I can use it to move things...I can do a lot with my mind.”

At this point, it was obvious that Amy could do things with her mind too but there were a lot of incredible feats she could perform physically. Still unclear with who this strange girl was, Amy wanted to see all of it,

“Does your family know?” Amy asked.

Eleven shook her head after a while, unsure of how to answer that question. She didn’t have what people normally considered a “family” but it sure wasn’t what she had been exposed to over the past few months. As far she knew, her biological mother was trapped in a vegetative state, the man she thought was her father was ultimately a man who kidnapped her as an infant and used her for his greedy governement, and lastly, there was Hopper, the man who took her in and protected her later on her in life and raised her as his own. He was her adopted father but she took the term literal rather than how Amy could’ve possibly seen it,

“No. Just my friends,” suddenly, Eleven eye’s widened at the mention of her them, “Oh, no! My friends. I was at the arcade with them before I came here. Wh-what happens if I’m here?”

“It’s fine,” Amy reassured.

She clarified that in her psychic engagements, she could have a two-hour long conversation with whomever and only a brief couple of seconds could pass on their end in the physical world. Despite only spending a few minutes with her, Eleven was already amazed by the things Amy could do with her mind in just one go. The downside was the limitations that her minds allowed, which only made her want to meet Amy in person even more than ever,

“I want to learn more about you,” Eleven walked closer to her.

“Sure,” Amy nodded. She lifted her hand and waved, “Bye, Eleven.”

Eleven didn’t necessarily want to leave if it only meant a few seconds to her friends but Amy felt differently about that. On that note, both girls were instantly returned back to her own realms, and just as Amy promised, not a moment had passed from what Eleven last remembered. She was in the midst of her friends cheers when Dustin turned around and grabbed her shoulders and began shouting from his victorious win. The pinball machine went off and on, blinked all types of colors, and generated tickets. They all banded together and walked off, somewhat forcibly taking Eleven with them as they traveled to claim some prizes.

However, what she didn’t know was that once Amy got in touch with you or vice-versa, she could follow you—an ability she recently began mastering. She used Eleven’s mind as an anchor, therefore, she too was in the arcade. Although not physically there and unable to be seen by anyone else, she watched as Eleven walked off with her party of friends, somewhat embarrassed by her own lack of friendships. Seeing this, made Amy realize that despite having such similar powers, they were living completely opposite lives. This, for Amy, could be a problem to open up later. Living what appeared as such a joyous lifestyle, how could Eleven possibly even attempt to see her?


	2. II

Eleven sat on Amy’s living room couch and brought her feet up for the sake of feeling comfortable and making herself ‘at home’ as Amy put it. Taking in a long whiff of an amazing aroma of soul food that never seemed to burn on the stovetop, Eleven looked over at Amy to ask her a simple question she had been wondering,

“What about food?” Eleven sat up, bringing both knees to her chest.

“What about it?” Amy asked, holding her favorite book in-hand.

“The food on the stove,” Eleven looked over at it momentarily, “If you’re hungry, can you eat it here?”

“We can, but it doesn’t work that way. So far, food seems to be the only thing that I can’t experience here,” she paused, somewhat temporarily losing that amazing spirit of hers, “Trust me. I’ve tried it.”

Eleven picked up on the somberness and decided it was best to try and quickly change the subject.

“W-where do you live?” Eleven questioned.

“I’m in Oregon, right now. Joseph, Oregon.” Amy replied. The thing about Amy is that whenever it came to answering a personal question about herself, she always seemed to become lusterless. In fact, Eleven felt that she was acting so different than from the last time they met, “What about you?” Amy asked.

“I’m in a town called Hawkins. It’s in Indiana,” After they both disclosed where they were from Amy wanted to keep the conversation from getting any deeper. At least for herself. Therefore, she brought up something else that Eleven would probably find interesting. She mentioned that she had been to a lot of places before Oregon. She lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Memphis, Tennessee, and just as she was about to list the third location, she paused. Eleven may have not spoken much, but she was very perceptive, “...What?” Eleven asked. She knew Amy was holding back, from the very beginning but this could really lead to some answers. However, she wasn’t going to let any of friends back home know until she was fully sure.

“Nothing,” Amy shook her head in refusal

She got up from opposite her and walked towards Eleven, grabbing the neon glasses she politely asked Eleven to return with on their next chat. She put it on and in another instant, the room was lit with an interior blacklight. As Amy intended, the green neon glasses glowed in the dark and Amy spun around in place almost as if she was a ballerina. Eleven watched in her in fascination as the young, brown girl danced back and forth, dancing with not a care in the world. However, Eleven could look at it and sense it as something almost therapeutic for Amy—something that wasn’t a red flag, just concerning.

A couple of minutes later and they were out in the public pool. Hit by the intense smell of chlorine. Eleven’s social awareness was at a point where she was comfortable enough to be around Amy in her undergarments. Slowly she took a step in the pool and held on to the edges,

“Oh my god!” she shrieked and shivered, “Cold! Cold!”

“Sorry!” Amy apologized.

She closed her eyes and concentrated, attempting to shift the temperature.

“Too hot!” Eleven shouted.

“SORRY!” Amy quickly kneeled by the edge of the pool and dipped her hand into the water. Using her mind, she lowered it, almost as if she was manually lowering the hot knob for a bath. Looking up she looked at Eleven who was now floating on a seahorse tube, “Better?”

Eleven nodded.

“I want to learn how to swim,”

They both agreed to it but Amy confessed, beforehand, that she wouldn’t consider herself the best teacher. All Eleven could do was give puppy-dog eyes for her to give it a shot. Besides, she promised the last time. Since the pool had a shallow and deep end, ranging from four to seven feet, Amy instructed Eleven to grab hold of the pool ledge and just kick away—kick as hard as she could. Amy giggled whenever  Eleven would intentionally attempt to kick some water onto her, however, this was where the real training came in. Using the floaty, Eleven traveled to the deeper end of the pool and grew anxious as she went from tip-toeing to no longer feeling the floor of the pool. She wandered off towards the deeper end and with some assistance from the tube, she was able to kick her legs around in the direction she wished.

“Now remember, as soon as you remove yourself from the tube, you’ll drop to the bottom, push up with your legs, and kick to keep yourself afloat.”

“I…” Eleven looked on nervously, “I don’t know if I can.”

“It’ll be okay. I’m right here,” Amy reassured, “Nothing bad is going to happen.”

Eleven nodded. It took a while because of her hesitance, but eventually, she took a deep breath and sank to the bottom. Opening her eyes in the blue tank. Her curls floated around her as if she were in outer space and she watched up as the tube floated away, somewhat hoping that it’d stay in place. Being submerged underwater gave her flashbacks of her time in the Hawkins National Laboratory and it wasn’t doing her pleasure. So as soon as her feet touched the bottom, she vigorously pushed herself upward, which wasn’t the best choice. As soon as she felt her head go above water she kept her eyes closed and kicked wildly. Unfortunately, her speed at which she kicked up and emerged only gave the water more leeway to take her back down,

“AMY I-I DON’T—” suddenly, she sank back down.

Again, vivid images of her being in an isolation tank came back. The only difference was that she wasn’t wearing any intricate headgear to prevent her from drowning. So being denied any air was something she didn’t like the feeling of.  Amy was unsure whether or not she’d kick herself back up, but she prepared either way. She could see Eleven’s dark hair rise towards the surface once again. Emerging, she took a deep breath of air and began shrieking. She was panicking and kicking water all over the place. Nearly brought to tears, Amy closed her eyes and teleported Eleven out of the water before she could be submerged a third time. Eleven instantly fell to her knees and coughed. Amy grabbed a towel off of one of the beach chairs on the poolside and ran towards her despite the risk of falling. She threw it over her back and knelt beside her,

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” Amy apologized. She should’ve never waited for her to go down a second time, “I froze. I’m so stupid!”

Eleven, attempting to catch her breath, reached up and rested her palm on Amy’s hand, seeing that her arm was still wrapped around her with the towel. She let out a subtle smile, more than thankful that she was still in one piece and no longer suffering. She was breathless but managed to get two words out,

“Thank you,” she patted Amy’s hand.

At this point, Amy began to realize that Eleven was no longer gasping for air. This time, she was hyperventilating. Admittedly, Amy was frightened with what was happening to her.

“...Are you okay?” Amy stared at her.

“I-I was,” her breaths began to slow down, “I was kidnapped. When I was a baby,” Eleven suddenly confessed, hoping it’d be some sort of chapter to this unconventional new friendship.

Amy was stunned before attempting to help her stand. Eleven continued after she was on both feet and managed to get her breathing patterns back on track.

Not achieving what she hoped it would, Eleven thought it would  be best to segue as best as she could,

“If I died here...would I die in...?”

Amy quickly answered, hoping to not let either of their minds linger there. Truthfully, that was something she was always afraid to find out. She nervously scratched the beauty mark on her forehead,

“I don’t know. Let’s not find out,” Amy chuckled, “I don’t want to use my friends as experiments.”

A glint momentarily appeared in Eleven’s eyes,

“I’m your friend?”

They both stopped walking and looked at one another.

“Yeah,” Amy smiled, receiving the same reaction.

She playfully nudged Eleven with her elbow as they continued walking back to the apartment. Looking away momentarily, she mustered up the strength to say what she planned to keep hidden away from Eleven for so long. Before Eleven could get another word out, Amy spat hers,

“I was kidnapped too.”

* * *

 

Back in Amy’s “apartment” Eleven was in her casual attire, having dried up rather quickly than one would in the physical world.  This time together was one of their most important.

Eleven started off, explaining her backstory. All she ever remembered was being raised by a man she knew as “Papa”. He was a scientist that worked for the US government and he kidnapped her from her mother when she was only an infant. It all started with a project called MKUltra, where government scientists attempted to perfect the utilization of mind-control with the intention to use it against enemies. However, it was a failure long-term. When Amy questioned how it related to Eleven, she explained that her mother was a victim of it and that the project might have somehow caused Eleven to be born the way she was. Papa was her very own mother’s handler and kidnapped Eleven for his own motives. She always knew “Papa” wasn’t a very good man, but learning the truth solidified everything. Eleven grew up inside the thick and sterile walls of a laboratory in Hawkins, Indiana, isolated from everyone and everything on the outside. She would go through countless tests and experiments, stretching her mind beyond its limit just to get the results they wanted and to make Papa proud of her. Most importantly, they were seeking to weaponize her and other kids like her. To reassure Amy that the pool incident had nothing to do with her, she mentioned that it brought back terrifying memories of the isolation tank—a contraption she’d be put into to use her psychic powers. Unless it was super quiet or deprived of any noise, she could locate people around the world and they’d use her to locate international spies during the Cold War. But there came a time where she located something she had no business looking for. A Demogorgon. Something she would never forget.

“A Demogorgon? Like, from dungeons and dragons?” Amy asked with slight disbelief.

If it weren’t for the Agent recalling his nerdy high school years, it would’ve completely flown over her head. By the mention of that alone, Amy nearly became unconvinced.

“It’s a monster in another world,” she shuffled her mind for the correct term, “Another dimension,” Eleven explained, “My friends called it the Demogorgon because they didn’t know what to call it. It was...” Eleven looked down, “It was scary. It was dead-looking and had a mouth for a face. When I first saw it in the void I didn’t know what it was. But when I touched it, it felt me. So I got scared and my powers opened up a gate by accident. But...I closed it. So they shouldn’t come back.”

“And the...Demogorgon?”

“I killed it.”

Amy was so stunned. She wanted to believe that these things were made up, but there’s no way someone could fabricate something as vivid as this unless they were on hallucinogens,

“Is your name Eleven because of…” Amy motioned to the tattooed mark on Eleven’s wrist.

She didn’t want to mention it before, but she noticed it when Eleven was kicking around in the pool.

Eleven nodded,

“I ran away and found people who really care about me...but...there’s so much I still don’t know yet.”

Amy wasn’t about sad-story Olympics but she couldn’t imagine sustaining what Eleven had for years, but with that being said, it was her turn. Similarly to Eleven’s, it involved the US government and scientists as well.

In a dire search for a remedy that could cure all diseases, some scientists for the Center of Disease Control and Prevention stumbled across a man, rumored to be immortal, in the blackest caves of Bolivia. But what they found was something beyond their wildest dreams and it was something deeply horrifying. The immortal man happened to be something inhuman and had a craving for human blood, and their search ended up having someone on the research team attacked and wounded. However, he contracted a virus, and after some time, he was healed instantly and was a changed man forever. Eventually, he was brought back to the CDC and they started experimenting with his blood—injecting them into death row inmates to see if it would work as a cure. As expected, they all contracted the virus and showed varying signs but the results weren’t quite what the CDC wanted. So, the facility came to one theory: They needed a child. When Amy’s mother died from a prescription drug overdose, she instantly became a statistic. Unlike Eleven, she didn’t have a connection to the government research through her mother, she just happened to be convenient for them. Being an orphan, Amy was an easy target. While in a foster home, she was approached by two federal agents—notably one was named Brad Wolgast. However, Brad had an unforgettable past that he had to redeem himself to and had a sudden change of heart. He made it his duty to look after Amy. But this was the government, and they didn’t stop until they finally got a hold of him and Amy and injected her with the virus. Just as they hoped, they got fantastic results...at first. With this virus came an influx of telepathic abilities and Amy got involved in the crossfires of a viral conspiracy to break out of the lab. She saw people murdered and went through drastic changes she could steer into her favor. Ultimately, she escaped with Brad and his wife and was currently in hiding with a viral epidemic going on in her side of the country. Anyone, including Amy, would say that vampiric creatures didn’t exist, but she had seen too much to no longer believe that.

Already being not as talkative, Eleven listened in to the whole story without any interruption and she was stunned. She knew what vampires were. She heard scary stories of them and saw even scarier movies when she and her friends would go to the movies. However, she understood that this ‘brand’ of vampires were called “virals”. The hardest part was following up with a question,

“So does that make you a…viral?” Eleven swallowed.

Amy didn’t want her to be afraid,

“Yes,” she paused, “...and no. I’m different in ways I don’t understand yet. I’m still trying to figure it out.”

Amy’s story was heartbreaking to Eleven. To have your childhood taken from you so suddenly was something Eleven couldn’t really relate to seeing that she had grown accustomed to her lifestyle. Amy had to keep running and adapt to these changes without a choice,

“Maybe we can figure it out together,” Eleven offered.

Amy smiled,

“That’s very nice of you, but...I don’t want to get you into any trouble. It’s better we communicate this way.”

Eleven was pretty hurt by her rejection but understood that Amy was only afraid, just like she initially used to be. Who knows, maybe somewhere down the line, she would change her mind. She jumped out of her seat and embraced Amy,

“I’ll speak to you tomorrow,” Eleven promised.

“See you then..”

Amy closed her eyes and once she opened them, she returned back to the frigid forest. Surrounded by towering trees and hues of greys and green. Her irises returned back to their natural brown color. Equipped with a bow and arrow in her right hand, she quickly regained focus and fired at the target stapled to a tree, missing the bulls-eye by only a few inches.


	3. III

It was weeks since Eleven heard from Amy, and she was becoming extremely worried about it because it was so unlike her. It wasn’t like they made a rule to not reach out to one another every day, but Eleven just liked it when Amy occasionally reached out to  _ her _ because the inside of Amy’s mind was much more comforting than her eerie void. It wasn’t like it was a secret or anything—Amy knew this. So waiting for Eleven to reach out to her couldn’t have been the situation. Eleven was in her bedroom and sat on her bed, deep in thought. Her caretaker, Hopper, knocked on her bedroom door—a room that belonged to his first daughter, Sara. Sounding soft-spoken as always, Eleven responded,

“Come in,” she gently granted.

He opened the door, fully dressed in his beige and brown police uniform. Hopper wasn’t a bad guy and he had good intentions but Eleven often felt like she was only being looked after because Hopper had a void to fill. His past was heartbreaking and Eleven understood why someone like Hopper had the complexities that he did. However, even though he no longer had her holed up in some musty old cabin in the woods for her safety, he still felt absent a lot of the times and laid down some strict policies for her to follow. And since she was thankful she no longer lived in the woods and could be closer to her friends, the least she could do was abide by his rules. He stood by the doorway and looked at her,

“You alright? You haven’t left your room since breakfast”

“Yeah,” she threw herself back onto her pillow. She had to think of another excuse, “I’m just waiting for Mike and the others to come.”

“Oh that’s right,” he settled by leaning onto the doorway, “You guys are going to the movies today, right?”

It was a question unneeded of answering. So before Eleven could give a response, he made sure to remind her that she should be home before the streetlights came on and that if the day went well, he’d probably be home just in time to make sure of it. Eleven, on the other hand, did not want to disobey that rule like last time. All she could remember was being dragged out of the park while her friends watched her, feeling second-hand embarrassment for her. For the first time, she knew what it felt like to feel embarrassed by one’s guardian and she was glad she experienced it. But it was a moment she never wanted to put Hopper through again. The fear on his face was something more than a checklist like it was in her case. Since curfew wasn’t even up for debate, Hopper exited the room, giving an “I love you” before grabbing his chief’s hat, his keys, and leaving the trailer. Being a ground level house, Eleven walked towards the window and peeked through the blinds. She refused to look away until he finally drove off, kicking up dirt as he sped off. 

Quickly she ran back onto her bed and sat in the center with her legs crossed. Noisiness was something that could easily interfere with her psychic powers, so she quickly took advantage of the absence of noise before Dustin and Lucas showed up. She blindfolded her eyes, turned on her staticy television, inhaled, and by the time it was meant for her to exhale, she was in her void. She opened her eyes, being surrounded by darkness that went on forever. Already standing, she could make out a figure a good distance in front of her. It was the companion she longed to see. Eleven cheerfully called out to Amy but only to be ignored. She realized that there was something entirely different about this encounter. Excitement took over Eleven’s joints and she proceeded to walk over and circle around her young companion, however, Amy had no awareness that Eleven was attempting to contact her to time. Now seeing her face-to-face, Eleven saw nothing but a distraught young girl, crying uncontrollably as she held her knees to her chest. Blood was smeared all around her lips, on top and below. At first, Eleven might’ve thought it was blood from a busted lip or a wound, but it looked nothing like that the more she studied her. It looked coated around her mouth almost as if it were a condiment one would get during a BBQ.

Despite not even having the slightest idea on what was happening, seeing Amy in such turmoil tore a hole in Eleven’s heart and she wanted to do nothing more than to hug her. If Amy’s despair was so hardcore that it even interfered with her ability to talk to Eleven via telepathy, then something mentally unspeakable was happening on her end. The slight breezes that blew through Amy’s newly french-braided hair was a clear indicator that she was cowering outside. She was armed with her bow and arrows, and she had dirt stains on the knees of her pants. Obviously, she was in danger and Eleven wanted to know if there was anything she could do to help. Finally, she saw Amy get up and start running—running with unimaginable speed. It was a feat that no ordinary human could perform or keep up with. Just as Eleven tried chasing after her, she sensed that there were other things chasing her...but they didn’t feel human. She couldn’t see them or get a good luck at them, but she knew something else was there. This only worried Eleven more because this could’ve meant anything. Maybe she unleashed something yet again and it was affecting Amy just like how the gate happened to get Will kidnapped. As Amy beamed more and more out of range into the dark and murky borders of her void, Eleven shouted her name one last time,

“AMY!!!” Eleven shrieked.

In a sudden shift, Eleven was in Amy’s mind. Eleven looked around frantically, noticing Amy was behind her. Amy looked devastated.  She ran towards Amy and pulled her into a hug, which Amy didn’t reciprocate quite too positively. Understanding, Eleven pulled herself apart from her.

“What the hell is happening?” Eleven questioned.

“I-I bit two people, Eleven. I killed them,” Amy’s voice trembled as her bottom lip did.  She wiped her glistening brown cheeks, “And the agent. He’s dead. A viral bit him and he died because of me. So,  I injected him with an anti-viral to try and save him.”

Due to the sudden wave of emotions, Eleven’s eyes watered but she attempted to keep her composure. Seeing a young girl who was having so much taken away from her was gut-wrenching.  She hesitantly reached up and held Amy by the shoulders,

“I-I’ll get help, Amy! Just tell me where you are!”

“Shit! They’re here!” Amy warned.

Suddenly Amy began shrieking in pain and was knocked out of her vision along with Eleven. Although the other bloodsucking virals were on her tail, it was just enough time for her to get her message to her. As much as she made it seem like she didn’t want help, a little part of her did. Her bow and arrow were knocked out of her hand and she was pinned up against a tree by the throat. The viral was pale skinned with blue and purple veins that bulged along every inch of its body, along with devilish yellow eyes and large fangs. Recalling her training or just being in the moment once before, Amy instantly activated into fight mode. This would often happen to her instinctually. She wasn’t sure if it had something to do with her usual personality trait since she had a knack for facing challenges head-on, but it sure benefitted her with every unwanted encounter. She was now surrounded by three virals and they were momentarily deciphering whatever the hell she was. Was she a viral? Was she a human? What were they smelling?

Thankfully, it gave her time to do something she had only done once before. Her emotions became neutral and her brown eyes began to glow and look quite similar to theirs, which took them by surprise. Lowering their guard was what cost them their lives that very moment. Targeting all three at once, they all began to react berserk-like and Amy’s throat was instantly unclenched. Restraint wasn’t something to be considered in the face of adversity, therefore she let her power act impulsively. The virals began to wildly lose their minds almost as if they were being tortured by something invisible, or better yet, in their minds. Amy stood in place, no longer in fear as the three of them began to run into trees and throw themselves about. One eventually tumbled to the ground, squirming around on the pavement in excruciating pain.

Virals were like the undead since the process of turning into a viral usually took experiencing the passage of death and rebirth. So, just like the undead, they were incapable of being killed unlike an average person. They could take sunlight but only for a limited amount of time and still risk bursting into flames. Due to the crowded trees that always seemed to block out the sun, places like these were usually the safest for virals to dwell in. Other humans, at all costs, should stay out, and it was why the agent was probably gone. It was the worst place to be.

Out of fear, Amy mercilessly made minutes go by until she was sure her enemies were incapacitated.  The virals were practically in vegetative states for the time being. Eventually, their cellular reproduction would kick in and they’d be right back to their former strength.  But to avoid that, Amy had to end it. She knelt to the ground and the first thing she reached for was her recurve bow, followed by a single arrow scattered amongst the many that fell out of her shoulder-back quiver. Her irises attained their golden yellow glow, looking more vibrant and entrancing than the virals before her, whose eyes naturally changed for all eternity, down to their very DNA. 

Spread a few feet apart, she switched gazes between the three of them. However, she looked back at the one to the far left. The one who grabbed her by the throat and pinned her to the tree. He was a young man with dark brown hair and an old white cap with blood stains on the sides of it. She probed his mind and could tell that he turned just a few days ago. As she probed some more, she learned that he was the maker of the other two accompanied with him: A man and a woman who was promised to one another before they were promised to this predatory life and whatever was coming next.  Just as all virals did, they traveled in packs and followed in the footsteps of their makers. Now that they were rabid bloodsuckers, it was their turn to make subordinates of their own, but it was Amy’s duty to make sure it didn’t get to that point. 

Although it wouldn’t normally be considered as such by any outsider, there came a perk to it to terminating a maker. She loaded her bow with the arrow she picked up and aimed it at the maker of the party. Drawing back the string, she released it, blindly piercing through his, instantly annihilating him,  his minions, and whatever other viral he turned out there. As her eyes reverted back to their normal color, she felt as if she had broken free from a trance; a trance she didn’t necessarily lack control over. It was almost like a spell she was in complete control of putting herself under. And whether she wanted to carry on with her actions were her very own choice. She looked at the deceased trio, slightly shaken by her own power. Attempting to recover from it, she stumbled backward until she could consciously make the choice to retrieve her quiver and gather her arrows. Lastly, she walked up to her target and removed the arrow by jerking it from his chest with both hands. She wiped off the blood off the arrowhead by using his garments and returned it to the quiver. Taking one last deep breath, she walked off in hopes of finding a safe place to stay for the night.

“No wonder you’ve been acting so strange!” Mike exclaimed as he rode his bike down the street with his gang of friends.

“Well, I didn’t notice anything,” Lucas commented as his ginger-haired girlfriend skateboarded close by.

“That’s because you’re a dumbass!” Dustin typically added, receiving the middle finger from his close friend. Despite the insults, he continued the discourse of Eleven’s new friend, “Wait! Wait! Wait! So, you mean to tell me that you’ve been talking to a psychic vampire?”

“Viral,” Eleven corrected, “She’s a viral and I think she’s in danger.”

“Does she suck blood?” Lucas asked.

Eleven thought back to the void, seeing the blood coated around Amy’s lips. Despite knowing the answer, she didn’t want to believe it,

“I don’t know.”

“Does she sleep upside down?” Dustin asked next.

“No,” Eleven rolled her eyes.

“Does she burn in the sun?” Will followed up.

“No!” Eleven grew tiresome.

“So she isn’t a vampire?” Mike had to clarify.

Eleven groaned,

“It sounds like she’s a vampire, but she’s a viral. They are different!”

Max skateboarded ahead of the group, just to prove that her wheels were capable of moving faster than bicycles,

“What makes you think she’s in danger?” she asked.

“She just contacted me a while ago when I was in my room. I think someone she really cared for died.”

They all stopped moving, giving Eleven a moment to stop after them. Once a death was involved, it was definitely something serious. As Mike said, he couldn’t believe they were being dragged through some other weird sci-fi shit. Dustin being Dustin, he specified that this was more so be paranormal or horror than science fiction. As much of an imaginative thinker that Dustin was, his imagination was something needed in something like this. Really, it was usually because of him they figured out what to call the Demogorgon and learned about the Upside Down.

 “Can we all just think about this for a minute? What if this is just like when Dracula uses his glamor to lure people in and suck people’s blood or something and turn  _ them _ into vampires.”

“She lives in Oregon, Dustin,” Will clarified, “What business would she have reaching all the way to Eleven in Indiana?”

“I-I don’t know!” Dustin brainstormed, “ Maybe she has some freaky psychic-blood. What if she’s not even a little girl and she’s some creepy old viral who makes himself look like a little girl.”

“OR—” Lucas joined in, “What if she wants to turn you into viral and make a team of unstoppable mutant virals and take over the world?”

The look on Dustin’s face said it all. To him, Lucas hit the nail right on the head with his suspicions. It couldn’t get any better than that.

“What? No!” Eleven denied as she seemed to be growing more and more fed up, “I don’t care what you guys think of her. If you don’t believe me, I’m going to save her myself.”

She remained still on her bike as they all looked at her,

“...How are we getting to Oregon?” Mike questioned after a long pause.

A warm smile appeared on Eleven’s face. Although it wasn’t necessarily a promise, she took it as one because she knew exactly how dedicated her friends were.  She wasn’t so familiar with Will or Max, but as she got to know them, she could only conclude that they were a part of this group for a reason and that they were just as trustworthy as Mike, Lucas, and Dustin. Eleven kicked off the ground and began riding her bike as the others followed,

“So she was taken by a government facility too?” Max questioned. 

“Yeah.”

“How does she look?” Dustin questioned. 

“She reminds me a bit of Erica,” Eleven specified.

“My sister?!” Lucas groaned, having second thoughts, “Look, before you guys get me in trouble, I do  _ not _ need my sister looking up to some psychic viral.”

So, that was it. Another rescue mission that the kids were completely down for. Considering all that Eleven sustained, these kids would do anything for her, and despite Dustin’s valid paranoia, it couldn’t hurt to check it out. Besides, Eleven was a girl with her very own psychic abilities. If there was anything she could do, it was protect them like the multiple times she had before.

Since the main question was already asked, it just needed an answer: How on Earth were they getting to Oregon?   
  



End file.
